Welcome to Parks and Recreation Local 733 offical blog. Read about upcoming meetings, stories of our victories, barganing updates, news and changes in our agency, and any other information that may be relavent to our Local.

Monday, September 16, 2013

So, if you don't already know, the contract has been ratified and there should be a final draft available by the end of September. Contact your Shop Steward or nearest SEIU Organizer to get your worksite a copy. I will be posting it electronically on the blog as soon as its available.

The new differential for Pesticide applicators is $1.25/ per hour. In the past we just use the standard shift diff coding but I assume payroll will have different solution since it has gone up by $0.75.

There should also be new boot forms, as the language has changed slightly to now include felt bottom shoes. Talk to your OC for guidance. If you need additional assistance contact your Local 733 Leadership.

Thanks to all who signed the Pledge to strike vote. This tactic really brought swift movement to our contract negotiations this time around.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

At approximately
12:30am June 18th your Parks
Local 733 delegates agreed with other ODOT coalition delegates to approve of
the final tentative agreements discussed in this contract’s bargaining
session.Although we and other locals
won some small victories, we did not however reach a compromise in article 66.3
in regards to allowing our seasonals to carry over up to 40 hours of vacation
into the next season.The response from
management is that seasonals are hired each year to work and not take
vacations.Even when we discussed scenarios
about seasonals with over 10 years of service and not able to spend a few days
with their families on a holiday weekend, management refused to budge.At the bitter end, we even offered compromises
that would only allow seasonals with 6-9 month long positions to qualify for
the carry over, yet still they refused any offers.

Your Parks
delegates were outraged that our agency refuses to grant such a simple request
out of respect for our Park Ranger Assistants who have shown their loyalty over
the years by returning each summer to make sure the restrooms are clean, our
visitors are safe and having a memorable experience, and giving a needed hand
to our Park Rangers!

If you are
as disappointed as we are, then I urge you to make contact with your shop steward
or your Local 733 officers and get involved. If this is an important topic or you have
other issues that need to be addressed, then this is a great opportunity to
start building up support for the next contract negotiation.

In the
meantime, the battle is not over.We are
still fighting for Healthcare, COLA’s, and retirement at central table.We will keep you posted as we receive updates.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

In the last sessions,
office coordinator reclassification was discussed including a sidebar with
Parks and management for detailed talks on a draft Classification that includes
all the duties our OCs do along with a newly proposed wage.Thanks to all the Parks OCs who attended the session where Barb did her presentation on the reclass. More to come on this topic

Other Parks specific proposals included a presentation on a Boot
Reimbursement language upgrade to include other types of boots and our proposal
for 66.3 to expand the seasonal definition to allow Parks seasonals to carry up to 40 hours of vacation into the next season.We received immediate responses for both
proposals from management giving us a good idea we may have a long fight ahead
of us.

This upcoming session will be next Tuesday April 16th
at the OPRD Headquarter.We will be
presenting our differential proposals, included our Parks Shift Lead Differential.Hopefully we can finish up all our proposal
presentations by next session so we can start getting counters and responses
from management (when the work really begins).

Central Table

Our people on central table have been discussing many concepts
proposed by both parties but so far management is not considering anymore
furloughs or step freezes in the next contract.However, no other economics will be discussed until May after the State’s
budget plan has been ratified.

An interesting example of a concept proposed by management is to increase Trial Service to 1 full year.They’re supporting argument is because of the
lack of managers (after the 11:1 manager/employee ratio was implemented) they
have to extend the time allowed so they can have enough time to evaluate
whether or not those employees will be moved into regular status.Really?

Monday, March 18, 2013

Your Parks Local bargaining team just completed they're 2nd session which coincides with the last possible day that we had to hand our proposals to management. Thanks to all you completed and turned in they're Bargaining Surveys. Your ideas helped formulate our fight for this contract. Here are the proposals that we will be fighting for in the coming months.

Park Hosts/Volunteer Language - We all love them. We couldn't do it without them. Some of these folks I would consider my friends but...we need to make sure that volunteers are not being used to replace potential park positions and/or park ranger roles. Sounds extreme? Go visit a Forest service park sometime and count how many Forest service employees you can find.

Vacation Leave LOA moved into 66.3 - this is the LOA that allows Rangers to have up to a week of vacation in any given season.

As for a Central Table update, no economics have been discussed yet. Stay tuned.

Next Coalition Session will be at 6:30pm at OPRD HQ on March 19th. There will be an opportunity for OC's to do a presentation at this one.